Looking back
by YasukiKanade
Summary: A few flash-fic lits my child of gaia, Mirai, looking to her past. One-shot, Complete (First change, Rite of clouds and rain) (Werewolf the Apocalypse)
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: These were short lits I previously wrote for a Child of Gaia in a pbp WtA. She is now retired. Pack mate names have been obfuscated.**_

Nightmares

Mirai "Pulse-of-the-Streets" Vega tossed and turned in her sleep. In her dream she was human again, before the change.

A simple nurse, day in and day out at the maternity ward, the wails of the addict premises, being weaned off morphine a constant reminder of the daily grind. Someday she hoped to be a mid-wife or in some other ward less painful to listen to.

She'd been taking classes of holistic medicine on her spare time. She simply audited them for fear of her co-workers finding out a real professional would listen to that "hoaky shit." To her though, it was yet another way to help a soul in need. The more she learned the better.

The dream sped forward, her feet pounding down that rainy alley once again. She needed to go to the corner store, but why? It was all such a blur. She'd been paid, that's right and the homeless around the illicit fires had counted on her to put food in their bellies.

She'd gathered bread and peanut butter and as many individual bottles of milk and juice as she could afford, rent could wait. The clerk always looked at her funny when she did. Mirai couldn't comprehend why. As a last minute thought, a few cans of cat food joined the other goods in the basket. Turning to check out, she saw him.

A man in a long black leather trench coat headed for the counter. Reaching beneath his coat, he yelled "open the drawer, bitch!" The shopping basket fell to the floor and cans of food rolled all over the aisle.

She was six months along, as close to a friend as the nurse had at the time! Why would anyone wish to steal from her? Then her eyes focused on the weapon in his hand... a revolver she thought but would never be sure. The next few moments were a haze. The bullet caught her square in the shoulder. Blood boiling, something powerful came from within. Background noise a confusing roar, or was that her? All she remembered was furred hands, her hands, claws reaching for the attempted murderer.

She had came to in the alley a mangled corpse beneath her, a bloody trail leading back towards the convince store. Large chucks of the man were missing, his trench coat tattered and an awful metallic taste in her mouth.

Mirai woke with a start, curled among her metis pack mates. Whimpering, she crawled away and vomited, this time free of blood and gore at least. Curling her arms around her legs shaking, One of the pack stirred. Coming up behind her, he wrapped his arms around her. _When did he sneak up on me,_ she wondered, _damn glasswalker_.

The glasswalker metis leaned close to her ear, "the nightmare again?" She nodded, tears in her eyes. He moved beside her and turned her chin with his hand to face him. "Be strong and look to the future, we'll keep an eye on you so it never happens again."

* * *

><p><span>Clouds and Rain<span>

Littany Breaker. Charach.

Those words never crossed her mind back then. Her Sept hadn't deemed anything that couldn't result in pregnancy as a Litany violation. _How would it be mating?_

After Mirai's Rite of Passage, she stayed on the Child of Gaia sept in Seattle and trained with the beta ritemaster. He was born in sin, like two of Mirai's pack mates later on and fascinated with Mirai's spirit heritage. In fact, he was the one who revealed Mirai's nature to her.

One day, he came to the new Cliath and proposed to teach her a rite of her tribe. He stood before her in the form of his birth, unusual Mirai thought, and naked completely normal for the form and for most on the Sept. She was to learn this, 'as part of her heritage,' he said. But the metis warned other tribes must never learn of the nature of this rite. They would misinterpret it. Mirai's naive mind couldn't make heads or tails of that statement, attributing it to being a potentially powerful tribal secret. Garou were territorial, after all.

The nature of the rite, she was told was to control the Rage. Mirai looked at him confused as she asked if that wasn't the point of the previous month's lesson. The practices involved in that rite still made her wince as she thought of it. She had felt as if they were torturing the poor Ahroun. He shook his head and softly placed a hand on her neck, telling her to shift to Crinos and he would show her.

She complied and he pressed her backwards. This was all too familiar and she stiffened. He calmed her by saying this was just a way to comfort a friend. It was a way to aid them in a time of need. They were friends, right? Mirai did care for the beta ritemaster, as a fellow Sept mate, at the very least. So despite her misgivings the child of Unicorn let him show her. Besides, he was Metis, what harm could there be?

Many moon cycles later, she reflected on that rite performed so long ago. She thought about what most Garou would think if they ever knew what she had done to learn it. And she wondered what would have happened if her former Beta had been a Child of Unicorn instead of Rat...


	2. Chapter 2

**Torn**

Mirai returned late to her old apartment. She still needed to contact Eli about the status of her lease. A handful of resume copies, fewer than the number she'd made in the morning, and a dozen or so applications were in the folder she carried.

_Soon, she would have a job. Soon, she could care for Ari and the baby._

A glimpse around told her she would need to clean. The apartment had been abandoned for months. Tossing down the folder, she leaned back to pull off her heels and get to work. Envelopes near the door caught her eye.

Pausing, she stooped to pick them up. Arranging them in an orderly fashion she thumbed through_ the mail they had missed. Bills. [i]Late payments... when was that dated?! What's this?!_ A letter lay folded in with the rest, somewhat familiar handwriting on the page.

As the Child of Gaia read the letter, tears misted her eyes. She shook her head in disbelief and held it close to her unsure what action to take anymore. Unsure why things had to be this way.

**Early Planning Stages**

There were many packs formed on the previous moon's moot. As well, pre-existing totems and Incarnae not properly honored with shrines. Mirai began a mental tally of the Totem spirits of the Sept as a starting point for her challenge as she walked along the shrines on the beach.

Eagle, Mirai herself was now packed under with Sinclair, Ari and Jack. A dolphin pack had formed, as well.

Tia's pack under the Sodals lacked a shrine, the theurge noted, with a hint of surprise. As long as Tia had been a member of the Sept and respected as the Gnawer was that confused her. Perhaps, that one should be first priority. Mirai was unaware of any totem for the Elder pack, so that was one out of the way.

_Evie, Akila and... Lula… was it?_ They were packed under Weasel. Her fingers drummed a steady rhythm on her staff as she ticked of the various packs of the Sept.

Ramona's pack under Meneghwo, the Patchwork Wolf had dissolved after the Spirals attacked and Eric died. Other packs had broken. Morning Glory, the previous pack Mirai was in under Unicorn she loved so much. Unicorn had a shrine Ramona'd made in honor of the Incarnae. The Deviants and Dilettantes pack under Bacchus and the Meneghwo pack never had any representation, however...

She bowed first before Gaia's shrine, constructed by Grams and Benjamin. She sat before the outstretched arms and looked down the beach. City Father's was further away, sitting watch. Unicorn and Rat's shrines sat completed, though Rat's should be checked. Max was working on that prior to her expedition in the Umbra, that would be a good start. _A partially constructed shrine to… Fenris, maybe? Hard to tell... Why did Roach have no Shrine?_


End file.
